Look At this Mess – 1973 Johnson 9.5 hp

[wbeaton]

I agreed to look at this 1973 Johnson 9.5 hp for a friend of a friend. I very much dislike working on these pancakes, but I was happy to help a friend. Looking at the cowl I could tell immediately that the exhaust seal was shot. Someone came up with an interesting fix for it. I admire his ingenuity.

Here is how I could tell the exhaust seals were bad. That’s not a velocity stack. It’s a snorkel for the carb.

Of course, the exhaust needs somewhere to go…

The owner is happy with the look of this motor as he feels no one will steal it. I have to agree with him. It would only run at high speed and sneezed a lot. I rebuilt the carb, checked the reeds and synchronized the throttle linkage. It ran better, but still had the same issues. I set the ignition timing and cleaned the points. It had newer coils and great spark while running. Unfortunately, the ignition was covered in black soot. As you probably guessed the powerhead seals are shot. The block is sucking air. You can see some bubbles at the joint where the crankcase halves meet in the video link below. I’m not a sadist so i broke the news to my friend that it’s not worth fixing, or more correctly, it’s not worth my time or the owners money to fix it.

http://s269.photobucket.com/user/holykingfish/media/C402F70A-D530-48E4-817E-470841CB0920.mp4.html

Wayne
Upper Canada Chapter

uccaomci.com

[westwind]

Proof that there is more than one solution to a problem.

[westwind]

Proof that there is more than one solution to a problem.

[1946zephyr]

Oh boy. This is way too funny. The snorkel idea is clever!!

[Buccaneer]

A "Red Green" approved repair for sure 🙂

Prepare to be boarded!

[Mumbles]

I’ve seen something like that done on older Honda four-strokes using a length of vacuum cleaner hose. The Hondas have a short exposed exhaust pipe under the head which rots out filling the area under the hood with fumes. This fix looks easier to do though on the 9.5’s with the carb opening pointing straight up! MacGyver will be proud of this one!

If the rest of the motor is in good shape you should get the owner to break out the tools and attempt to preserve this classic! Who knows, he might even enjoy doing it!

[oltimer]

Wayne
A friend of mine just bought this same year model from a widow neighbor. The best part was that it still was in the factory box and never ran; and as new as new is!. We put it in my tank with the hood on, and it started up immediately, but ran about 5 min and stopped. I knew the background on these motors; so we pulled the hood off and it ran like a champ. The exhaust fumes do shut down these motors, and that invention on yours is very well thought out. Some in the past; we have drilled 1/4 inch holes around the front and back of the hood and this stops the fumes from ingesting back through the carb and killing the engine.

[fleetwin]

I have seen this sort of solution several times, especially when the engine was used on a sailboat. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone successfully repairing this abused engine, except for the few 9.5hp purests still in existence.
That is a shame about the new 9.5, this one is surely worth repairing properly….

[outbdnut2]

I’d add a U-shaped tube to that snorkel so rain can’t enter.
Dave

[Author]

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